J. Scott Rhodes to Serve as New Bar Counsel in Complaints Against Andrew Thomas

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas will get a special, independent Bar counsel. How much do you want to bet he's still not happy?

This just in: Attorney J. Scott Rhodes is part of the conspiracy to deprive Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas of his law license!

We're kidding -- but only kind of. The real scoop is that Rhodes, an attorney at Jennings Strouss, has agreed to serve as independent counsel on complaints that the State Bar of Arizona has received regarding Thomas.

But considering that Thomas' office has filed a wide-reaching --and ultimately, spectacularly silly -- racketeering lawsuit against a host of county officials and judges, charging that they're part of a criminal enterprise trying to deprive him of his license to practice law, we can assume it's only a matter of time before J. Scott Rhodes is somehow added to the enemies list.

All joking aside, Rhodes was selected by the Arizona Supreme Court for this oh-so-joyous task. Rick DeBruhl, the Bar's spokesman, tells us that the Bar had asked the Supreme Court whether it should recuse itself on any investigation into Thomas.

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There's precedent here, since the Bar did in fact recuse itself on previous investigations after Thomas' lawyers claimed it had a conflict. Plus, Ed Novak, one of the private attorneys sued by Thomas' office as part of that silly racketeering suit has been the Bar's past president. He's currently on its board of governors, although he doesn't vote.

So the Bar offered to hire someone independent, and the court agreed, choosing Rhodes for the job, DeBruhl explains. The court also selected its former chief justice, Charles E. Jones, to serve as probable-cause panelist on the case, which means he'll have a role akin to a judge in deciding what evidence Rhodes can collect.